I settled in to watch last night's Keeping Up With the Kardashians next to my parents' still-decorated Christmas tree, ready to nibble on the last of our Chex party mix and savor the final night of the holiday season. And then all of a sudden, there was Kris Jenner on my television screen, cursing wildly and swinging at bugs with a tennis racket. "Shit! You can hear it, you guys, when they die!" Happy 2016.

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Let's Get the Scott Stuff Out of the Way: Scott turns up at Kris's house when she, Kim, Khloé, and Kourtney are there for a meeting. I don't buy that this was an absolute shocking major shock surprise for every single person in that equation, but setting that aside (and setting aside that it is a bad, bad look to wear sunglasses indoors while having a serious conversation about your life), I didn't love watching Scott get another chance to make promises we've heard him make before, and I didn't love watching Kourtney and Kim and Khloé get teary while he made them. I used to be a sucker for all the drama Scott brought to the show, but the whole thing just feels too sad and heavy these days.

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Random Aside: Throughout several scenes in the episode, and with no real explanation, Khloé is wearing a golden, inflatable crown, and I am SO, SO into it; unfortunately, Kourtney takes it away at one point, saying she's the "original queen," which is some real textbook big sister shit.

Where's Rob? It's sort of a bummer that the first time (I think) that Kris talks about her son this season, it's to talk about his tattoos (which quickly turns into her and the other girls laughing about his attempts to cover up someone of the more unfortunate ones). It raises the question: Is it better for Rob to come up like this, or better for the show to just quietly pretend he doesn't exist? The whole exchange leads to Tyga unveiling his Kylie tattoo, and Kourtney speaks for all of us when she says, "As long as Kylie doesn't get 'Tyga,' we're good!"

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Important Questions Raised by this Episode: Are Cheetos, like, Tyga's thing? Because he eats them in at least two separate scenes (on two separate days) in the episode, including right before a hike, when he assured a scolding Kylie that he'd "sweat them out." (In his defense, they were Flamin' Hot Cheetos.)

Mermaids: Real or Not? I'm a well-educated woman, but you can only listen to people have an actual, un-ironic argument about whether mermaids exist before you start feeling a tiny bit insane. Kourtney thinks they must exist, because the ocean is so huge, and Kim thinks it's possible they existed "maybe once upon a time." Kris is, for once, basically speechless. I mean, on the one hand I think everyone involved in this conversation is, in one way or another, a tiny bit crazy, but also the ocean is so big, you guys. All of this leads to Kim arranging for a "real mermaid" to come to swim with North and Penelope, who are baffled but not traumatized by her. Penelope winds up standing on the pool deck, bossing the mermaid around, which my 3-year-old self would've understood.

Reality TV Is Fake: Kris's speech to Kylie about why she needed to spend time with Kendall on the trip didn't match the audio in the rest of the scene. (I'm fine with the fact that the show has to patch dialogue in because of mistakes sometimes, but I'm dying to know what Kris actually said.) Kylie's "don't tell me what to do in front of my boyfriend, MOM" attitude did not, unfortunately, seem fake.

Reality TV Can Be Real: I'm sure Kendall and Kylie's spat over Tyga's presence on the family vacation was exaggerated for the cameras. Of course it was. But I also think that Kendall and Kylie's relationship is where we see some of the most genuine moments Keeping Up With the Kardashians has to offer. The trappings of Kylie and Kendall's arguments are grand and unfamiliar — weird fights about flyboarding and passive-aggressive comments in poolside cabanas — but they're about something really universal: the struggle to build adult relationships with your siblings; to find how and over what you connect now that you're two busy people who don't live in the same house anymore. I'm glad they're working so hard at it.

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